Cant get into 1st and 2nd Gear

Cameron1590_2

Hi All,


We recently bought a used car (Fiat Sedici 1.9 Multijet) the car is a 2007 reg and has only cover 29K miles. The car came with full service history and we can see Halfords (god forbid) change the clutch and dual mass fly wheel around two years ago.


However we are having problems getting into first and second gear when the car is cold, if you drive it for 20mins it will go into gear fine once it is warm however when it is cold every other gear is fine, its just first and second.


Do you think its possible that Halfords put the wrong oil in the box? Would the wrong grade of oil cause this issue?


Thanks


Cam

BeenThroughItAll

Cameron1590 wrote: »

Hi All,


We recently bought a used car (Fiat Sedici 1.9 Multijet) the car is a 2007 reg and has only cover 29K miles. The car came with full service history and we can see Halfords (god forbid) change the clutch and dual mass fly wheel around two years ago.


However we are having problems getting into first and second gear when the car is cold, if you drive it for 20mins it will go into gear fine once it is warm however when it is cold every other gear is fine, its just first and second.


Do you think its possible that Halfords put the wrong oil in the box? Would the wrong grade of oil cause this issue?


Thanks


Cam

Incorrect grade of gear oil can cause problems engaging gears, noise, difficult changes or in extreme cases damage. Could also be poor adjustment on the gear linkage, although less likely since the behaviour changes when warm.


Gear oil is cheaper than a gearbox rebuild, so get the oil drained and the right stuff put in - if that fixes it, happy days. If not, it's cost you £20-30 to eliminate oil as the cause.

Strider590

Likely the gearbox oil has never been changed, ordinarily it never needs to be changed because it never gets contaminated (unlike engine oil), although some cars do share oil with the engine/gearbox, which can lead to premature gearbox failure if wrong viscosity oil is used or the vehicle not serviced according to it's use (ie low mileage = more frequent servicing needed).

I would say it's the gear linkages that are out of alignment, a lot of cars now use a multi-cable gear linkage system, where the gear lever is set to position, the gearbox locked in 1st or 2nd gears and the cables then individually released/adjusted to suit. The cables can stretch or sometimes slip.

But there's one more issue here, it's a Fiat and Fiat have a history of bodging the LH to RH drive conversion, particularly the clutch. In the late 90's it wasn't uncommon for certain cars to be needing new clutch cables every 6 months.

gabitzul

I am surprised nobody has picked up on the fact that the car had a clutch change 2 years ago (maybe at under 20k miles) and the mileage is very low.

I would check the clutch before anything else.

BeenThroughItAll

BTW, is it the 6 speed box? If so, they're very sensitive to gear oil.


I doubt the oil is the original as when the box was removed it would have likely lost at least some from the driveshaft apertures, so Halfords would probably have had to bung some in (unless of course they didn't bother, which again won't help the thing change gear well).


When the clutch was done, was a new concentric slave cylinder fitted? If it's the one I'm thinking of they're a pig to bleed properly, and if they're not properly filled with fluid when fitted, you'll never get them bled right... unlikely that would cause the behaviour you describe, but a possibility.


I don't subscribe to the 'it's a Fiat hence unreliable' point expressed above - the Sedici was also sold as the Suzuki SX4, and was actually built in Hungary at the Suzuki plant there.

Strider590

BeenThroughItAll wrote: »

the Sedici was also sold as the Suzuki SX4, and was actually built in Hungary at the Suzuki plant there.

Oh, Suzuki/GM/Vauxhall/Opel, I knew there was the 1.9CDTI link, but I didn't know that. I guess Fiat finally realised that their own cars were a pile of junk :rotfl:

Cameron1590_2

Hi All,

Thanks for the replies, unfortunately all the invoice says from halfords is provide new clutch and dual mas fly wheel. The gear linkages are okay according to the local garage and they are going to try changing the oil in the box tomorrow and add some moly slip to help with shifting in the morning when the car is cold.

It is the six speed box and they are known for being rough on engaging into 1st and 2nd gear but when the box is cold you can't even get it into gear however once warm it goes in like butter!

We will see what tomorrow brings, hopefully it's fixed as it's a nice car to drive just the gear issue makes its unbearable when cold.

Thanks

BeenThroughItAll

Cameron1590 wrote: »

Hi All,

Thanks for the replies, unfortunately all the invoice says from halfords is provide new clutch and dual mas fly wheel. The gear linkages are okay according to the local garage and they are going to try changing the oil in the box tomorrow and add some moly slip to help with shifting in the morning when the car is cold.

It is the six speed box and they are known for being rough on engaging into 1st and 2nd gear but when the box is cold you can't even get it into gear however once warm it goes in like butter!

We will see what tomorrow brings, hopefully it's fixed as it's a nice car to drive just the gear issue makes its unbearable when cold.

Thanks

DO not bother to add molyslip to that 6 speed box. They do not need it, nor do they react well to it.


ETA - I've just remembered something else. Often that F40 box gets overfilled, as there was some documentation originally that specified something like a 3L fill. They actually only need about 2.4L IIRC. When I did the clutch on my wife's 9-3 1.9 (same box) I needed 3 bottles of the GM oil but only used two and a bit. The change after that was perfectly sweet cold or warm with no snake-oil additives required.

Cameron1590_2

Thanks for the information, I will ask the garage to follow your advice. Fingers crossed it works. Thanks Cameron

arcon5

Halfords did some work to it 2 years ago, work that at that age and mileage m sets off alarm bells anyway - yet somehow they seem to being blamed for problems not even diagnosed and sound unrelated. Just brilliant!